Above: Sixteen horses and riders took part in the Wilderness Challenge 2009. Right: Nancy Gustafson leads a group of Wilderness Challenge participants out on the trail.
Once a year, when June arrives, Jack and Sarah Lieser pack up their big horse trailer and make a long trip to Minnesota from Texas. They enjoy escaping the Texas heat and look forward to the beautiful cool weather of Minnesota. The culmination of their trip is the Wilderness Challenge on the Gunflint Trail.
On the way north, Jack makes several stops to teach Natural Horsemanship Clinics to horse lovers. Toward the end of July 2009, Jack arrived at Dave and Nancy Gustafson’s Running Horse Ranch in Schroeder. For two days, Jack taught horsemanship classes and offered one day of private lessons. All the classes were well attended and all participants had fun.
This year’s Annual Wilderness Challenge—the fourth—was held September 10 – 13. Theevent is organized by Jack and Sarah Lieser and is held at Okontoe Fellowship on the Gunflint Trail. Sixteen students participated this year.
The Liesers enlisted the help of four guides for the large group. They were Nancy Gustafson, Jennifer Fenwick, Jerusha Rose Steinert and Charlie Hartman. The guides arrived in camp a couple of days early to help Jack set up horse pens and scout trails for the challenge. Horse camp is an open field that is across the lake from the Okontoe campground.
Photos by Sarah Lieser & Jennifer Fenwick
On Wednesday evening people started to arrive—welcomed by a thunderstorm that poured down most of the evening. The next morning the sun came out and horse camp came alive with 27 plus horses, busy neighing back and forth welcoming each other, as their owners were getting settled into cabins and getting ready for classes.
Classes started early in the morning in the open field, where Jack taught students different tasks to work on with their horses.
After eating a wonderful lunch prepared and served by Okontoe’s Pattens, participants broke into four groups and each guide took one group out into the wilderness. The groups were given challenges on the trail, which made them apply the things they had learned in class that morning.
On the first day of the challenge, the horses have a lot of energy and the students are anxious about the unknown. In a short time Jack was able to calm everyone down. By the end of the day everyone was in good spirits. Thehorses began to relax and the students were sore from riding. Everyone was ready to head back to horse camp for a warm meal and crawl into bed.
Each night, the guides tallied points for the different challenges performed by the riders.
On day two the trail taken by the horses and riders in the challenge led to Trail Center restaurant. When the riders got to Trail Center, they tied horses to a high-line tether connected to trees behind the restaurant. The staff and owner Sarah Hamilton are always helpful and treat our group to a fun time while we are there.
Day three was a special day. The owners of Okontoe drove their wagon, pulled by two big Belgian horses, out to us in the woods to bring us lunch.
That evening after supper we relaxed around lighted lanterns and listened to the Pattens (Jake, Andrea, Mark and Nancy) sing worship songs. Theysing so beautifully and we also shared life stories with each other.
Day four was our last day and the group dubbed the “Belt Buckle Buckaroos” was in the lead with the group “My Favorites” in hot pursuit. A scavenger hunt on horseback was the last challenge and the Buckaroos finished as the winners of the challenge.
As we ended our time together, students and couples shared their favorite things about the weekend. Worship time and the cantering hill were at the top of the list. Many said they had felt very challenged—all felt that they had grown in confidence and courage with their horses and within themselves.
It was hard to say goodbye. E-mail addresses were exchanged as well as hugs as another Wilderness Challenge came to a close.
If you are interested in signing up for the challenge in 2010, please visit Jack Lieser’s website at www.jacklieser.com for more information.
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